It is time to make the strategies go deeper. literally!

Bonus 300 minerals for this unique idea

I just couldn't resist posting this idea on the forums. It might feel a little weird at first, but when people would get used to it, it could change the flow of the game, make it more interesting, and really make Starcraft 2 a next generation strategy experience.

So to the idea:-----------------------------------------------------------------------


We know that StarCraft maps have different height levels. As far as i know there are currently 4 different heights in SC2 including the air level in which the air units move and engage in combat.

I'm going to make a list of different height levels from top to bottom:

1.) The air level

2.) The 2nd cliff level.ProbablyAccessable trough ramps from the ground level or the 1st cliff level.

3.) The 1st cliff level.Accesable trough ramps from the ground level.

4.) The ground level. On this level your troops are originally, even though in known maps such as the Lost temple , you start to build on the 1st cliff level, and later move down to the ground level.


- At this point comes my idea -


5.) The underwater level:

This level is accessable from any water pool on the map, only by certain type or upgraded units. This level could be used to hide units, sneak to enemys base unseen trough waterways such as: rivers, lakes,seas and underwater tunnels. The underwater level would allow you to build secret bases underwater protected from those nasty mutalisks that harass you.



------- The underwater level would offer you many options to create strategic advantage:----



- Yellow minerals and high quality vespene gas would fit there perfectly to encourage the players to try playing underwater.

- SCVs would recieve an upgrade to move effectively and survive in underwater environments (Ill return to the protoss and zerg later). With this upgrade your buildings would recieve an upgrade aswell, making you able to build bases underwater and granting you acces to several buildings designed only for underwater environments.

- Underwater combat units: They would basically be upgraded versions of normal ground units.

these are just examples.

* The Terran viking would have an underwater form trough upgrade.
* The marines or ghosts would recieve a tactical suit designed for underwater combat, ofcourse with the ability to return to the surface at any time.
* The zergling and Hydralisk would't need any upgrades for underwater movement. Pearhaps just a movement speed upgrade or tunneling.




- Underwater tunneling.

* Ability only accessable by the Zerg units such as the Hydralisk , and terran SCVs (notice that the Terran version of this ability would be significally slower because the SCV would just use his drill/ fusion cutter to create the tunnel, whereas the Zerg use their claws and force their way trought with a great speed.)


THE PROTOSS:

The forces of Protoss would not gain acces to the underwater level at any part of the game. However, they have several special abilities that can counter your enemies attempts to build an underwater base.

Examples:

* The Phase prism recieves an ability ''Magnetize'' to suck all water from a specific area to make the underwater level accesable for normal ground units. This would allow protoss units to be dropped on the area, or a colossus just to walk in and pew pew.
This ability would also work on interactive obstacles such as rocks blocking ramps.


* The Reaver recieves a new ability called ''Shock wave'' that works on the ground and also has effect to units and buldings placed underwater.
This is an ability that has a cooldown and requires energy. On the ground, it launches a shockwave that deals psionic area of effect damage and throws back enemy units. When used near the water, it creates a Zunami - like effect that deals damage to underwater structures and units (deals less damage than on ground units.) However when you have 4 reavers making shockwaves on the top of the water pool, doesnt that kinda force your opponent to make a decision wether to sacrifice their base or to come and destroy your Reavers?

*The Protoss Observer recieves an ability to scan water pool areas. You are unable to see underwater but you will hear a beeping sound if there are any enemy movement on the selected area. The Observer won't be able to detect units that aren't moving, or buldings that arent processing anything. So it is wise for a player to stay as silent as possible if there is an Observer lurking around.

THE ZERG:

Are the kings of underwater environments when it comes to speed. While not able to build underwater, They move swiftly and dig tunnels with a great speed, so if you are playing a Terran, make sure to have troops near the walls to prevent a zerg surprise attack from a tunnel. Otherwise you might be forced to lift off your buildings and move your base on the ground level (Not that it would prevent the Zerg from following you to the surface and continuing their attack.)

THE TERRAN:

Use the waterways for surprise attacks and for fast resource gaining. One common tactic would be to send a squad of marines and ghosts to an enemy location with a stealthy underwater submarine. Go build that Nuclear silo underwater and your enemy won't know that you even have one, unless he succesfully scouts all the water areas on the map. Even after that it might be too late... Boom.


This is all i can think of for now. Sorry for all the mistakes in spelling. Sure this idea sounds kinda complicated and starcraft has never seen something like this, but I think that Blizzard would find a way to make it work.

I think the best way to shift between underwater area and ground area would be to use PGup and PGdn ( not accessable by Protoss.) PG dn would show you all the explored underwater areas on the map if there is no fog of war (if not explored then it would be shown as black.). PG up would return you to the ground level.

Edit: Notice that not neraly all maps have any water pools, so u don't have to worry about it all the time

Your opinions gentlemen ?

 

nice ideas. i like the idea of water environments and water interactions in starcraft.

i ones posted a topic about water environments and water units in starcraft 2. like harvesting minerals underwater and having water units etc. and most completely disagree with my ideas saying why need water units and why need to go underwater if you can fly in space etc. anyway your is kinda different, and underwater interaction for starcraft is groundbreaking. 8)

 

I think the reason people consider the whole underwater thing useless, is because they think it is too complicated, and would just prefer to rush with their 4 Zerglings instead

However in SC2 they introduced us the yellow minerals. Now that is the key to lure players underwater. We don't know yet how much those yellow minerals will produce, but it's still better than the regular minerals.

Also with the versality of Terran it is not hard to just lift off your CC and land it on the bottom of a lake.
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In my opinion would be overall better if there wasn't any specific units to work in underwater environments only. But some of the ground units would recive the ability to travel underwater with a pair of reseraches that will cost no more than 100 minerals / gas each... As simple as that. It doesn't have to be so complicated :

Now that i think about it It is actually another ground level but has water above it providing shield from many enemy units and making your base or units ''invisible'' when viewing from the ground level.

 

so like if you can hide your (terran) buildings underwater and you are already losing the enemy will have a hard time to finish the game cause its not easy to find building hiding anywhere *underwater* (you said units/buildings, invisible from ground level) plus the protoss still need a phase prism like you said to get rid of the water and warp zaelots etc to take care of the "one" last hiding building. makes things more complicated and the game longer to be finish.

anyway i still like the idea, but i think a lot of balancing and new mechanics is needed to pull this off.

 

I'm sorry for triple posting, and also sorry if I made it sound too complicated, since I'm trying my best to get lot of people to support this idea (that I appearently stole from you ). It needs to be done so that it doesn't kill the fast phased atmosphere the Starcraft had, but still the game has to be more dynamic. How to maintain those 2 things at the same time? That is the problem we are seeking answers to.

But the thing about protoss is:

The same abilites that can be used to counter the threat from underwater, can be used to other things aswell, like removing obstacles with the phase prism, or use the Reavers ability just to original ground troops. The Observer ability could also be passive.

When the game is about to end and the Terran player only has one building, he must realize that he is going to lose sooner or later. If he starts building underwater at this point of the match, the Protoss will do dubt have the reavers ready in no time, and blast the crap out of the water pool

ANY ideas are most welcome, thx for support!

 

what's with the Protoss-hating? I want to explore the murky depths too!

 

I don't hate Protoss, I play it myself 8) But yeah maybe it's a bit unfair for Protoss not to be able to move underwater. But how would the PSI react to the water... hmm ?

 

Kewl ideas, I can imagine a terran CC with a huge plastic dome over it like in the Simpsons movie xD

 

Cool in theory, but not a good fit for Starcraft. It would be used very rarely; I'd prefer if Blizzard just used their time to make the normal ground and air game flawless. Plus I'm not sure I agree with how you've separated the races. I think Zerg would be the most adept in water and would be able to build there, the Terrans wouldn't be able to do anything in the water except throw mech units in to electricute everyone, and the Protoss would probably just want to stay away from it because they don't like getting wet. They're like cats. Mrrrow.

 

i think thats a great idea for other games, but it would cause WAY too much balanceing issues. for example you could fit an entire army through it and then pop up in the middle of nowhere and having 5 levels would make it really confusing

 

......Is blizzard really going to do that or is that your own ideal. But besides that i also noticed that the maps now use deep deep ditches to cut off basses. they no longer use wells to cut off and determan the base size

 

Don't know if Blizzard is going to make it happen. It is possible, but pearhaps there are just too many difficulties to make it completely balanced. I would like it though. The environments in the screenshots look so interactive that it almost looks like you are able to jump down to those deep misty canyons.


@ CapMan, I mentioned that there would only be certain type of units and buildings that are able to move underwater. Also if you are near a water pool, you might want to build a bunker or two to prevent the water rush from happening, or just send in a scout.

The units i thught could move underwater:

For Zerg I would think: Zergling, Hydralisk

For Terran I would think: Units: SCV, Marine, Ghost, Viking (submarine form.)

Buildings: Command Center, Supply depot, Barrack ( only marine and ghost buildable underwater. ),Missile turret (torpedo turret?).

For Protoss: None so far :-\

 

yah. what if there is a lower level of terrain after jumping there. that would be something. and you can actually see phoenix flying down from above. hhmmm, for starcraft 3 maybe.